Excite Holidays goes into administration

KPMG has been appointed as administrators of Sydney-based wholesaler Excite Holidays.

The news comes after weeks of speculation in the Australian trade press about the company, which stopped taking any new bookings earlier this week and had reportedly, over Christmas, told staff to take an extra week's holiday and turn their phones off.

According to Travel Daily in Australia, Excite's executive director Nicholas Stavropoulos had earlier told staff the company was in talks with investors but said no more bookings would be taken while discussions were taking place.

The company, based in Bondi, claims to offer access to more than 400,000 hotels and apartments and 100,000 activities in more than 150 cities worldwide.

It reportedly laid off a number of staff just before Christmas, blaming 'severe loss of revenues and financial loss'.

Shortly afterwards the company told partners it was experiencing 'platform issues'.

Emails to TravelMole's contacts in the UK business came back with replies saying: "Thank you for your email, If you have any queries regarding Excite Holidays please email KPMG on[email protected]"